A Professor of Linguistics, Portuguese & Translation Studies, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Arts, Lagos State University (LASU), Tayo Ajayi, has said there is the need for greater rapprochement and collaboration between Brazilian, African linguists and anthropologists in order to deepen studies related to African heritage in Brazil.

He particularly suggested that in order to revalue the Yoruba contribution to Brazilian language and culture, there needs to be greater cultural reconciliation, or agreement between Nigeria and Brazil than there is at the moment.

These were part of the main thrust of 109th in the series of the inaugural lecture of the university, delivered by Prof Ajayi, with the theme: “Interlinguistic Interactions and Resultant Phenomena: Agglutinative and Inflectional Languages”.

The inaugural lecturer noted that the fundamental difference between the two languages is that Portuguese is an inflectional language, while Yoruba is an agglutinative language, saying this is because Yoruba doesn’t inflect to agree on gender or to form the plural.

To further internalise the two languages and culture, Ajayi urged the Brazilian Government to include African Languages in the programme of postgraduate scholarships abroad for Brazilian students; the Nigerian Government could incentivise Brazilian students interested in the Yoruba Language through scholarships administered by the responsible bodies in the country.